Let Sleeping Dogs Lie: the Key Middle School Saga Continues…
The Key Middle School situation has become a political football and then some. Yesterday, civic activist Quannel X reportedly urged students to skip school this Thursday, saying that the district had placed them in intolerable, overcrowded conditions by temporarily posting them at Fleming Middle School while alleged air and mold…
Miss Pop Rocks: Things That Will Last Longer Than Pam Anderson’s Marriage to Rick Salomon
Okay, so our gal Pammy and the Paris Hilton sex tape guy, Rick Salomon, supposedly got hitched this past weekend in (crazily enough) Las Vegas. It is the third marriage for both, and, according to People, it was a quickie affair that took place in between Pam’s two scheduled magic…
This Just In: Deadlock Over TSU President Priscilla Slade’s Spending
Daniel Kramer After eight weeks of testimony, evidence and arguments, it appears that the jurors hearing the case of former Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade have deadlocked, 8-4, this morning. No word on whether the vote is for exoneration or conviction. State District Judge Brock Thomas has asked the…
Pop Numerology: How High Can You Go?
Futzing around with my iTunes, I discovered I have a song with every number in it up through the number 25. I stall out at 26. Anybody know one with that number in it? Here’s my list: “Splash 1,” Thirteenth Floor Elevators “Two Girls,” Townes Van Zandt “Three Sixteens,” U.G.K…
Attention Bayou City Radioheads
Has anyone downloaded Radiohead’s brand-new MP3-only album In Rainbows yet? I haven’t, but the codes were emailed overnight and reviews are starting to trickle onto the Internet. (Like here.) Seems like another stylistic mash-up a la Hail to the Thief, with perhaps some of Thom Yorke’s latent Don Henley fandom…
Dennis Miller Gets Another TV Show? Really?
Just when I think I can no longer be amazed, something comes along to amaze me. For instance, I thought that nothing could be amaze me after Dennis Miller got a radio talk show. Imagine my surprise to find out that someone’s giving him another TV show. And imagine my…
Get Lit: These Things Ain’t Gonna Smoke Themselves, by Emily Flake
We get it, smoking kills. Like tattoos , it’s just not “cool” anymore. So why do so many of us still do it? Emily Flake tackles the question in her entertaining graphic novella These Things Ain’t Gonna Smoke Themselves: A Love/Hate/Love/Hate/Love Letter to a Very Bad Habit. Without further ado,…
Roger Clemens: So Not Worth It
Still pissed off that Roger Clemens spurned the Astros to return to the Yankees? Don’t be. Actually, any baseball fan already knows the Rocket sucked this year. But Darren Rovell, a sports-business reporter for CNBC, broke things down with a vengeance. Add in the luxury tax foisted on the Yanks…
Radio Houstoned: Silver Screams Film Festival
Click here for a slideshow of art by Clive Barker. To listen to a podcast interview with Silver Screams Film Festival co-directors Jolene McMaster and Cynthia Neely and Houston Press Night & Day Editor Olivia Flores Alvarez, click on the LISTEN button below. Jolene McMaster and Cynthia Neely like to…
Get Lit: Making Records: The Scenes Behind the Music, by Phil Ramone
He’s not the long-lost brother of Joey and Dee Dee, and his name is known mostly to liner-note scourers, but Phil Ramone’s nearly 50 years behind the studio glass have given him a window on the recording techniques and temperaments of some of music’s biggest names. The 14-time Grammy winner…
Classiness, Thy Name Is Texas Tech
We thought we bowed to no one in our Aggie-bashing, but we have been schooled by the tools in Lubbock. Check out the T-shirts they’re selling for the upcoming A&M game: On the front, in huge letters, the phrase “Vick `Em,” obviously a play on the Aggies “Gig `Em” nonsense…
Give Us a Hand
If there’s one thing we learned from the Press’ recent H-Town 100 list, it’s that Houston has produced a lot of great songs. If there’s another thing we learned, it’s that lists – of anything, but since this is the music blog we’ll stick with songs – can sure draw…
Dane Cook Shouldn’t Be Selling Baseball. Or Anything Else.
I know we have a Miss Pop Rocks around to handle the pop culture stuff, and to ask the important questions of life. But I can’t take it anymore, and I’ve got to have my say. If you’re like me, you’ve been watching lots of TBS the past week or…
Is Benoit Pouliot Gonna Be the First to Go?
The Minnesota Wild, the parent club of the Houston Aeros, also started their season last week. The Wild are currently 2-0 on the season, having defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 1-0 and the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2. Their next game is against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night. And while the…
Radio Houstoned: James Swain and Midnight Rambler
To hear a podcast with author James Swain and Houston Press Night & Day Editor Olivia Flores Alvarez, click the buttons below. James Swain’s newest book Midnight Rambler focuses on abducted children, a subject he knows something about. Swain’s mother was abducted as a child, and while she survived the…
Three Nights Ago: Meat Puppets in My Living Room
Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets II Hall Residence October 6, 2007 Better Than: Don’t tease me. Download: Rare Meat, a fan assembled compilation of rarities, b-sides, and promotional recordings. Or, like me, you could just listen to Meat Puppets II until the acid-washed southwestern cowpunk soundscapes are seared permanently into your…
Drenched In Blog: Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails Cry “Freedom”
Today we’re honoring Radiohead and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails for busting the shackles of corporate record labels and chucking caution to the wind. For breaking out of the “Maggie’s Farm” that has destroyed so many careers and tanked artistic rebellion in exchange for a few extra bucks, using…
Even Cal Ripken Sat His Ass Down Eventually…
John Royal and Jason Friedman are taking a little break this morning. They’ll be back soon. In the meanwhile, might we suggest you check out some bad-ass photos from Houston Press contributor Mark C. Austin? We’ve got a couple of new(ish) slideshows up. One from the Houston Texans vs. the…
Robb’s Review: Tamale Time at Doña Tere
Julia Walsh It’s the time of year when Texans start wondering where their holiday tamales are coming from. This week’s upcoming review of Doña Tere Restaurant brought back memories of tamales past. When I reviewed the original Doña Tere on Bellaire near Dairy Ashford (“Tamale Morning,” Houston Press, November 20,…
Robb’s Review: Tamale Time at Doña Tere
Julia Walsh It’s the time of year when Texans start wondering where their holiday tamales are coming from. This week’s upcoming review of Doña Tere Restaurant brought back memories of tamales past. When I reviewed the original Doña Tere on Bellaire near Dairy Ashford (“Tamale Morning,” Houston Press, November 20,…
Worse, Worser and Worst: You Just Know Travis Johnson Made the List
Mark C. Austin Click the image for a slideshow. I know, you guys are just waiting for me to come out and blast the Texans after yesterday’s victory. But you know what? I’m not going to. While I wasn’t overly impressed – no team should have that many problems against…
MLB Playoffs: Finding Even More Religion on the Baseball Diamond
After last night, can we please do forever away with the “Roger Clemens is the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball” talk? After all, the Rocket only managed to last into the third inning, and the Indians were hitting him pretty easily, before leaving the game with an injury…
Drenched In Blog: Sonic Youth’s Surprise Bassist
Talk about being in indie-rock snob heaven. Friday night I rolled into Austin, in defiance of all Texas state laws, to see Sonic Youth. The Meat Puppets opened to a packed (and stoned) house. The crowd was more on the older side, people who lost their virginity to Goo on…
The College Football Review, Week Six: Plenty of Upsets, Including a Notre Dame Victory
The college football season just gets better as the weeks progress. We might have thought that last weekend was upset weekend, but nothing can quite compare with Saturday’s upsets. After the games, there are now ten teams in the AP Top 25 that were not there when the season began…
$750 Scotch: Glenlivet’s 1969 Limited Edition Cellar Collection
The press sample of 37-year-old single malt sure looked like a bottle of cologne. So what would happen if I slapped some of this stuff on my face after shaving, I wondered. I would probably be followed around all day by a bunch of middle-aged guys with bushy eyebrows and…
$750 Scotch: Glenlivet’s 1969 Limited Edition Cellar Collection
The press sample of 37-year-old single malt sure looked like a bottle of cologne. So what would happen if I slapped some of this stuff on my face after shaving, I wondered. I would probably be followed around all day by a bunch of middle-aged guys with bushy eyebrows and…
Last Night: HorrorPops at Meridian
HorrorPops, Roger Miret & the Disasters, Applicators October 7, 2007 Meridian Better Than: Anything Tiger Army will ever do, on their best day, with faith and the wind at their back, Rick Rubin at the board and Dean Moriarty at the wheel. Download: “Caught in a Blonde” from Bring it…
The Houston Aeros: Playing Like Winners, Even If They Weren’t
The Houston Aeros opened the 2007-08 season in much the same fashion as they opened the 2006-07 season. They lost. The Chicago Wolves defeated the Aeros 4-2, but after falling behind 3-0 15:42 into the first period, the Aeros would shut down the Wolves for most of the rest of…
Notes & Quotes: Wondering How God Feels about Ugly with the Houston Texans
Click here for a slideshow of Sunday’s action. The word du jour was “ugly.” You heard it over and over again in the Texans’ locker room after the club snuck past the winless Dolphins 22-19. Indeed, there was very little about the game or Houston’s performance which could be described…
Miss Pop Rocks: Girls Who Like Girls But Who (Really) Like Boys
So Miss Pop Rocks found herself at a certain club this past weekend, shaking her groove thang to a certain excellent band. I was having a grand old time living it up when I discovered a young lady trying to dance with me. Remembering the days of my youth when…
Last Night: Octopus Project, Bring Back the Guns at Numbers
Octopus Project, Bring Back the Guns Numbers October 4, 2007 Better than: Watching the Cleveland Indians whip the New York Yankees 12-3 in Game 1 of the American League Division Series, which is saying something. Download: “Ghost Moves” or “Vanishing Lessons” from the Octopus Project’s brand-new album, Hello, Avalanche. After…
Q&A: Loreena McKennitt
Demetris Kollalous Canada’s Loreena McKennitt established herself as the queen of pan-Celtic music with 1998’s double-platinum smash The Book of Secrets, and the two-time Juno winner’s seventh LP, An Ancient Muse, shimmers with the hallmarks of her transcendent vision. A notoriously private figure, two events over the last ten years…
Sonic Youth
Congratulations to Houston experimental/noise quintet Black Leather Jesus, who were hand-picked by Thurston Moore to open tomorrow night’s free Sonic Youth show at the Thunderbird Hotel in artsy West Texas hamlet Marfa. Founder Richard Ramirez, who started BLJ in 1989, also runs the label Deadline Recordings, also home to appealingly…
Westside Wolves Forfeit Last Season Due to Ineligible Football Player
Westside High School Principal Paul Castro sent out a sad message to students and parents yesterday, informing them that the school is forfeiting all of last season’s football games and the first one of this season. In 2006, the Wolves finished 10-2 on the season and won district. They were…
MLB Playoffs: the God Squad vs. the FSM?
So, going into the weekend, here’s where we stand with the first round of MLB playoffs. The Colorado Rockies have continued on the hot streak with which they ended the season, now having won 17 of their last 18 games. The last two wins have been over the Phillies, their…
Drenched In Blog: 99 Problems…..
What is a boy to do? I got a warrant on the books, an itchy driving foot, and the need for some serious chilaxing….. Should I go see Sonic Youth in Austin, at Stubbs’s? Or catch the Black Lips down the street at Emo’s? It’s valium versus speed, people. Let…
The College Football Preview, Week Six: The Red River Showdown, the Tears of Touchdown Jesus, the Glory of the Rice Owls
Before I get on with this weekend’s college games, it’s got to be noted that, for the first time in my lifetime, Rice has a better record in football than Notre Dame. Yep, that’s right. Rice is better than Notre Dame. While I was watching the D-Backs beat up on…
Snakes in a Church!
Alright, children of God, it’s Friiiii-dayyyyy! For some footage of the way we celebrate the end of the week down here at the Press office, click the link. (For those of you who have never met me, I’m the spin-dancin’ dude, rockin’ the vest, ruffled shirt and white patent-leather shoes.)…
John Royal’s NFL Picks, Week Five: Sports Writers Are Athletes Too…
I went 7-7 last week to raise my record on the season to 27-35. But I’m hopeful that with this week’s NFL picks I might get closer to .500 territory. I’m hoping that once I start getting a winning record that Alyssa Milano, who has now sworn off athletes, might…
…But That Doesn’t Mean the Sex Is Safe
Rice University may be ranked #17 in the country by U.S. News & World Report, but as far as the good folks at Trojan brand condoms are concerned, Rice and many other Texas universities barely get a passing grade. Trojan recently put out its annual Sexual Health Report Card ranking…
Jason Friedman’s NFL Picks, Week Five: Whorin’ for Hits? Or Just Lovin’ the Ladies?
Now are you happy? Just an abbreviated version of my picks column today, but I thought I’d go ahead and drop a few names like Jessica Alba, Kim Kardashian and Eva Longoria. ‘Cause, ya know, I’m apparently really desperate for hits. And of course nobody else on the ‘net ever…
Houston Is One Naughty City…
In this line of business, whenever you pick up the phone and hear an unfamiliar voice say, “Hi, is this a good time?” your heart sinks. It sinks because you’re 90 percent sure the person on the line is about to talk your ear off about the new Applebee’s going…
Get Lit: Goings On About Town: Photographs for The New Yorker, by Sylvia Plachy
I hate to do this. I looked at Sylvia Plachy’s photographs in Goings On About Town: Photographs for The New Yorker and I was bored. I knew I had to write a bad review and I didn’t want to do it. But I’ve blown it off long enough. It helps…
Long Snaps with Bryan Pittman: Posh, ‘Roids and Rock & Roll
www.houstontexans.com Houston Texans’ long-snapper Bryan Pittman returns for more thoughts on life both on and off the gridiron. This week, while going one-on-one with Ballz columnist Jason Friedman, Pittman dishes on the Spice Girls’ reunion tour, his choices for team MVP and early encounters with steroids. JCF: All right, first…
The Houston 100: The Master List
Last week John Nova Lomax and Chris Gray handed out hardware to the 100 Greatest Houston Songs. The results appeared here and here. We now present them all in one handy place. 1. “Tighten Up,” Archie Bell and the Drells, 1968. The very best song from Houston has to do…
High Steppin’ in Rat City
If you hate rats, Houston is the second worst city in the United States of America to be. That’s according to a nationwide study commissioned by d-CON© just released today. We are shocked. While we previously knew that some of the downtown parks had a problem, we had no idea…
Drayton, This Is What You Get for Rushing Your Hires
Gee, Drayton, I told you. This is what you get for rushing to hire a GM and a manager. You lose out on the good candidates that become available after the season is over. For instance, yesterday, the Cardinals fired GM Walt Jocketty, the man who put together last season’s…
Drenched In Blog: Sir Mick’s Greatest “Hits”
This week, Sir Mick Jagger, the guy that sings in the Rolling Stones, released a compilation of his solo hits. Calling these songs “hits” is a stretch in the most sincere form. You could call it more of an album of tracks that Keef shot down during sessions. He probably…
Hockey 101: The Houston Aeros Primer
The Houston Aeros won the Calder Cup, the title of the American Hockey League, way back in 2003. And the team finished the 2005-06 season with a stellar record, only to disappoint in the playoffs. Last season, the Aeros never had to worry about disappointing in the playoffs as the…
The Oldest Bar in Houston. No, Really.
Raise your hand if, at any point in your drinking career, you have sat at the bar of La Carafe, set your wineglass down and, in a knowledgeable tone, said, “You know, this is the oldest bar in Houston.” You would not be alone, and you would not blamed. That…
The Return of the Police Blotter
Welcome back, everybody, to another edition of the Police Blotter. Today we introduce you to three people related to sports who have been arrested within the past week, and, believe it or not, none of them is associated with the University of Texas…
Miss Pop Rocks: Make Your Own Lifetime Movie Title!
Select one phrase from Group A and one from Group B. Then stick the word “and” or “by” in the middle and you’ve got yourself a Lifetime movie title! Group A: Secrets, Lies, Hijacked, Betrayal, Devotion, Seduced, Kidnapped, Stalked Group B: Danger, Madness, Love, Truth, Murder, Confessions, Fantasy, Anorexia –…
Miss Pop Rocks, May I Sleep With Danger?
Is anyone else out there totally obsessed with Lifetime Television (television for women!)? More specifically, perhaps, are they obsessed with the movies that air on Lifetime? For the novices out there, let me explain. There is a body of work on Lifetime that truly deserves to have a dissertation written…
Houston Coming Out
For members of Houston’s GLBT community, the decision to come out is often fraught with difficulty. But “Houston Coming Out” is here to help. “It’s tough for any person to embrace their true selves, especially when it’s been taught that it’s sinful and disgraceful to be who you are,” says…
Miró Quartet
A long way from their 1995 origins at Oberlin Conservatory, and clutching a slew of national and international awards, the Miró Quartet lands at Rice University’s Shepherd School tonight with a transatlantic tour of string music. Named after the artist Joan Miró (and inspired in particular by her originality), the…
Original Greek Festival
If the recent temporary closing of Mykonos Island has you in a panic, relax. There’s still plenty of Greek food in the city, and the best of the best — souvlaki, spanakopita, those sweet, sweet loukoumades and other hard-to-pronounce foods — will be available at this weekend’s Original Greek Festival…
Blue
In playwright Charles Randolph Wright’s Blue, a well-to-do black family’s saga plays out over two decades. The Clarks live in a fictional South Carolina town, but their circumstances are refreshingly stereotype-free. No gangs or crackheads — refreshing! Blue seems to have every touchstone of a smartly written family drama: the…
Dallas
Eighties babies, it’s time to remember Dallas — and this time you won’t have to cover your eyes during the dirty parts. The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston will be hosting an outside screening of the popular dramatic series that ran from the late ‘70s to the early ‘90s as part…
An Evening of Classic Lily
Lily Tomlin is a master of characters. The actress is known for her versatility on various late-’70s variety shows, where she developed a vault of characters, from Ernestine, the short-tempered telephone operator, to the devilish six-year-old Edith Ann. Tomlin will visit Jones Hall today for An Evening of Classic Lily…
“Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection”
“Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection” isn’t meant to inspire accessory ideas for the latest fall fashions. “This exhibition challenges viewers to look beyond traditional definitions of jewelry — namely, as decorative, societal status symbols — and view these objects as art in their own…
Festival Chicano
If there’s such a thing as the golden oldies of Tejano music, then Festival Chicano offers it in solid 24 carat. The incredible lineup starts today with Little Joe and Sunny Ozuna. Rockers since way back when, the two have been true pioneers of the genre since the 1950s, and…
Hearts of Animals
Fans of lush, ethereal shoegaze or lo-fi DIY indie-pop would be well advised to check out local one-woman band Hearts of Animals. The lone member, who enigmatically refers to herself as “SWF,” distills the lush, blissed-out waves of the endlessly layered instrumentation and hypnotic drones of My Bloody Valentine’s opus…
Arsenic and Old Lace
How do you take a play done to death by every high school, college and community theater and make it worth watching again? For Arsenic and Old Lace, the Alley Theatre brought in some nationally acclaimed talent to mix with an already stellar lineup of actors. “Coming back to the…
“Through Many Eyes: A Study in Extrospective Portraiture”
For her new series, “Through Many Eyes: A Study in Extrospective Portraiture,” at M2 Gallery, Aimi Dunn invited guests for a photo shoot and attempted to accurately capture each model’s personality. Using the photos as guides, she freehanded each portrait in acrylic. Dunn’s portraits aren’t meant to be flattering; she’s…
Dreamgirls
Big voices and big dreams add up to one very famous musical — at least that’s the case with Henry Krieger’s 1981 Broadway hit Dreamgirls. The Tony Award-winning extravaganza about the rise and fall of a Motown-style girl group might be all sentimental gooeyness, but the script and songs grew…
The Alps
Since he was nine years old, John Harlin III has held a lot if ill will for a huge rock. The offending heap would be the Eiger, a nearly 6,000-foot high mountain in the Alps of Switzerland, which claimed the life of his father. Mountain climber John Harlin II died…
The Future of Food
In the documentary The Future of Food, a female narrator with a calm, pleasant voice explains the process and problems of food modification. Her calm might help viewers not totally freak out watching the film. Just as crop pesticides produced unexpected consequences far different from their benign intentions, the genetic…
Slammin’ the Infinite
Slammin’ the Infinite is drumming up a lot of attention in New York’s avant-garde jazz scene. The drumming, of course, is hard to follow, as the foursome’s improvisational skills make for plenty of bizarre time changes and unsettling rhythms. Most of the music may only be understood by well-read music…
Konk Pack
When you’ve pushed the boundaries of music as far as they can go, what’s next? Pushing the boundaries of noise. Experimental improvisational trio Konk Pack have been performing together since the late ‘90s, creating a marvelously virtuosic racket that can best be described to the uninitiated as free jazz, hold…
You-Go-Girl: The Musical
Girls gassing about girls — girls in love, girls at work, girls in therapy — that’s the premise behind You-Go-Girl: The Musical. The home-grown show, created, directed and choreographed by women, features a handful of actresses playing more than 50 characters, singing tunes about everything from mother/daughter relationships to what…
Rotten to the Core Gala
If the idea of food, ivory tinkling and screaming, sweaty men in tights sounds like a good night out, then your dreams can come true at the Rotten to the Core Gala. The evening fund-raiser — hosted by local arts groups Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre and Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre — aims…
“A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City”
Sometimes Houston can feel like a Congolese jungle, but most of its residents are fortunate enough never to have experienced the hardships of refugees in central Africa. The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) is creating “A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City,” an interactive…
Jeff Samuel
While it would be a blatant lie to claim Jeff Samuel invented techno, it would only be a slight exaggeration to say his efforts were instrumental (pardon the awful pun) in bringing the form to where it is today. Back in 1998, the prevailing wisdom in the electronic community was…
“It’s Alive: Where Everyday People Can Be Artists”
It’s like art class in a bar, “only we’re not going to be telling people what to do,” says Emily Hynds, cofounding member of local theater and now artist troupe Boo-Town. Today, the group is setting up shop in Catbird’s for “It’s Alive: Where Everyday People Can Be Artists” to…
The Passenger
Before Jack Nicholson began starring in roles opposite Adam Sandler, he was the face of such auteurist ‘70s films as Roman Polanski’s Chinatown and Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger, which the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has selected as the swan song of its Antonioni retrospective film series. Like last year’s…
Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble’s Petrified
You know that moment when a bass guitar lingers on a note for five, ten, 15 seconds? Even as the note itself holds steady, wavelengths of sound radiate outward, creating movement within the monotone. Bear this in mind as you consider the name of the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble’s new…
Hunter Ward Memorial
Hunter Ward left an indelible mark on Houston’s rock scene, not just with his music but with his charismatic personality. Whenever you saw him playing with Poor Dumb Bastards or hanging out around Montrose, Ward was always upbeat and enthusiastic. It was impossible to be down when Hunter was in…
“Rebecca Ward / Jason Rogenes / Dan Steinhilber”
With piles of Styrofoam, rolls and rolls of electrical tape, hundreds of sheets of cardboard and yards and yards of black plastic, Finesilver Gallery is hosting three separate, site-specific installations in “Rebecca Ward / Jason Rogenes / Dan Steinhilber.” It’s a fairly epic endeavor for a commercial gallery to have…
Okkervil River
Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff plunged himself about as far into the psychological abyss as possible on 2005’s widely acclaimed, borderline-disturbing Black Sheep Boy, so he can be forgiven for lightening up on the Austin group’s new The Stage Names. “Fun was the watchword this time,” he writes in the…
Carlos Mencia and Graffiti
Dear Mexican, I’m a minority, and I know we can be overly sensitive sometimes, but I just can’t stand Carlos Mencia. Not only are his jokes asinine, but I feel they are actually racist. Whereas Dave Chappelle tried to make fun of society’s racist thoughts, Mencia seems to promote them…
Black Lips
Through some combination of lack of inhibition, well-disguised genius, complete incompetence and dumb luck, the Black Lips’ first album managed to create a sound that convincingly aped Nuggets-style ’60s garage while retaining a uniquely twisted postmodern sensibility. At the time, their shows were a frenzy of comic violence, nudity and…
Feature Photo
We’re not sure what Lara Clark’s pointing her camera at, but apparently it’s more interesting than the lineup of deer over her shoulder, silently judging her framing abilities. Or maybe they’re judging her hat. This shot was taken at the Carter Country on I-10, on the balcony — also known…
Adam Franklin
Once upon a time, Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin was textbook: dreadlocks in his face, loose, earthy T-shirt, maybe some tattered Cobain-style wrap, his deep drawl barely peeking out betwixt the jigsaw rhythm section and the whooshing oscillations of the stompboxes below, the very pieces that gave the genre its somewhat derogatory…
Chamillionaire, Ultimate Victory
When did mainstream rap become more relevant than its underground counterpart? Talib Kweli and El-P released self-congratulatory pap this year, while Kanye West’s sincere, introspective Graduation sold almost a million copies in its first week. Now Chamillionaire’s Ultimate Victory is ridiculously topical and, if not always thought-provoking, usually hilarious: “Rosie…
Save Our Houston Songs
Off and on for the past six months, we’ve been working on a list of the top 100 songs to ever come from Houston. (The top 20 appeared in last week’s paper; numbers 21 through 100 are on our Houstoned Rocks blog.) Originally, our purpose was to do it simply…
Commerce Street Artists’ Warehouse
When performance artist Xavier Herrera and well-known spray-paint artist Skeez 181 rented studio space at Commerce Street Artists’ Warehouse in 2004, the building, considered a home for the experimental and alternative, seemed like a good fit for them. Rent was cheap. The other tenants were artists making it happen. And the…
Siouxsie, Mantaray
God, it’s good to have Siouxsie back. Not that she really went anywhere; since dissolving the Banshees after 1995’s Rapture, the Goth goddess has recorded and toured with former side project Creatures, re-formed the Banshees for a spell and now — peekaboo! — released her first proper solo album. Sassy,…
Loreena McKennitt
Canada’s Lorena McKennitt established herself as the queen of pan-Celtic music with 1998’s double-platinum smash The Book of Secrets, and the two-time Juno winner’s seventh LP, An Ancient Muse, shimmers with the hallmarks of her transcendent vision. Evoking the dark soul of the night, its exquisite introspection and otherworldliness point…
Joni Mitchell, Shine
Coming out of hiding after her 2002 tirade against the music industry, Joni Mitchell has teamed up with Starbucks for Shine; way to stick it to the man, Joni! The album begins with “One Week Last Summer,” a tired instrumental piece filled with faux-jazz riffs, before Mitchell starts singing. Inspired…
Musical of Musicals, the Musical!
f you’re a fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Kander and Ebb, then the ultra-fabulous Musical of Musicals, the Musical!, now blowing the roof off of Theater LaB, is just the song-and-dance fix for you. This hilarious parody by Eric Rockwell and Joanne…
Mary Gauthier, Between Daylight and Dark
Mary Gauthier’s Between Daylight and Dark is filled with insightful, exacting storytelling, from broken-but-unbowed tribute “Last of the Hobo Kings” to heart-ripping finale “Thanksgiving,” which describes a poor family’s prison visit. When the guards have the grandmother take off her coat and stand in the cold wind to frisk her, Gauthier makes…
Naked Men: The ManKind Project and Michael Scinto
“The ManKind Project offers trainings which support men in developing lives of integrity, accountability and connection to feeling.” — From The ManKind Project Web site “They had three naked men bring out two chickens that they hit with a hammer.” — Michael Scinto in a letter to a Madison County…
Our Top DVD Picks Scheduled for Release This Week
The Audrey Hepburn DVD Collection (Paramount) Bram Stokers Dracula: Collectors Edition (Sony) Christmas Television Favorites (Warner Bros.) The Comedians of Comedy: Live at the Troubadour (Image) Criminal Minds: The Second Season (Paramount) Day Night Day Night (IFC) Entourage: Season Three, Part 2 (HBO) Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer…
Meat Puppets, Rise to Your Knees
The most satisfying 21st-century reunions have been the ones with compelling back stories. For Dinosaur Jr., it was a cult of twin personalities; Mission of Burma, a frustrated artistic legacy. Now the Meat Puppets’ reunion is a story of personal redemption to rival Merle Haggard’s. The Arizona (now Austin) trio’s…
Antica Osteria
Antica Osteria is a quiet little Italian restaurant in Rice Village. There are only 13 tables in the cozy main dining room, five or six more in the dark bar and half a dozen out on the patio. It’s a good place for a romantic dinner, despite some quirks. My…
Art Capsule Reviews
“The David Whitney Bequest” “The David Whitney Bequest,” currently on view at the Menil Collection, is a strange little exhibition of works from Whitney’s collection, which were bequeathed to the Menil. The show is curious for its double-sided mission. On one hand, it’s a wonderful sampling of works by contemporary…
DJ Mike Relm and the Blue Man Group
Mike Relm, a bespectacled Asian DJ clad in a suit and tie, is single-handedly introducing turntablism to a wide swath of middle America on the San Franciscan’s second cross-country stint with the Blue Man Group. He opens their current production, “The Rock Concert Instruction Manual,” with a classic-rock-heavy set, and…
Ziggy’s Healthy Grill
If you have a hard time getting your head around the words “healthy,” “tasty” and “nachos” and all in the same sentence, then try the Ziggy nachos ($7) at Ziggy’s Healthy Grill (2202 W. Alabama, 713-527-8588). The chips are whole-wheat (I know what you’re thinking, but hold on), and they’re…
Stage Capsule Reviews
Blue Playwright Charles Randolph-Wright creates an indomitable character in his black family drama from 2001. Elegant Peggy Clark (Detria Marie Ward), a former supermodel, doesn’t belong in the small mill town of Kent, South Carolina, where she moved with her husband many years ago. Successful, upper-middle-class and well-off, they’re the…
Caligula: Imperial Edition, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, 1408: Collector’s Edition and Mystics in Bali
Caligula: Imperial Edition (Penthouse) (Spoiler alert: Fisting!) One day back in the swingin’ ’70s, somebody mentioned how “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and then Bob Guccione, Gore Vidal, Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren and Peter O’Toole said, “Let’s make a big-budget movie about that, with come shots.” And Caligula was born. Actually,…
5 Wines That’ll Blow Your Mind
Derek Black is the general manager/wine director at Rattan Pan-Asian Bistro + Wine Bar on Eldridge Parkway. We asked him to tell us what kind of wines he likes with Asian food and for his list of “5 Wines that Will Blow Your Mind.” DB: Call me crazy, but I’m…
Into the Wild
To some, the story of Christopher Johnson McCandless, the 24-year-old Emory University graduate who starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness in the spring of 1992, will never be anything more than a case of a spoiled bourgeois brat with half-cocked survivalist fantasies (and possible suicidal tendencies) who ran away…
Across the Universe
After Hair, Hairspray and the mass marketing of tie-dye, can the ’60s be shrunk to fit any further? Yes, indeed, here comes Julie Taymor to run the revolutions of sex, class and race through the PG-13 sieve. Not that one turns to musicals for deep thought, but John Waters at…
Pool Party
Billiards is one of the few sports that’s as taxing on a computer screen as it is in real life. It’s played in pubs, after all, and its legendary star was named “Fats.” Unfortunately, most virtual billiard games are behind the 8-ball in terms of quality, with poor physics and…
The Long, Painful Genesis of Bring Back the Guns’ First Album
Dozens of albums came out in the U.S. Tuesday, few (if any) with a more difficult and protracted gestation than Bring Back the Guns’ Dry Futures. Officially, the record — released on guitarist/singer Matt Brownlie’s brand-new local label Feow! Records — is the Houston indie-rock quartet’s first, but as they…
Val D. Adams, Oscar Wyatt, Paris Hilton, Garbage and Religious Transfers
Jennifer Roy says she got more than she bargained for when she went for counseling to Val D. Adams, a preacher at Canaan Missionary Baptist Church. Besides being physically screwed, intercoursewise, she says she was also bilked out of $600,000 when Adams told her the FBI was investigating her, but…
Harptallica
Some of classical music’s more menacing denizens have made no attempt to hide their tawdry love affair with heavy metal and its similarly melodramatic virtuosity, self-seriousness and hair. In 1996, three cellists from Finland dubbed themselves Apocalyptica and released a record of quintessential Metallica hits, while Metallica themselves performed with…
Mail Call
Our two Houstoned Ballz blog columnists got in a bit of an online tiff last week. First, on Monday, September 24, John Royal wrote “Peyton Manning Takes a Break from Shooting Commercials, Takes Down the Texans.” The same day, Jason Friedman wrote “Same Old Texans? Jason Friedman Writes a Rebuttal…
Yaga’s
In this town, longing for a change of season or wardrobe is a colossal waste of time. So my favorite beach boy Sammy and I decided to take advantage of Houston’s endless summer and embrace the sun and surf. Grabbing the SPF 50, off we went to Galveston and its…
The Rough Guide to the Music of Vietnam; The Rough Guide to Latino Nuevo; The Rough Guide to Salsa ; Bokoor Beats; Bonde de Rolê, With Lasers; Kenge Kenge, Introducing Kenge Kenge; The Budos Band, II
Various Artists The Rough Guide to the Music of Vietnam www.worldmusic.net Vietnamese pop and traditional styles take some getting used to, but this album’s true surprise is its at times coincidental, at times intentional affinity with American blues. “Blue Requiem” is intentional camp, teaming Japanese producer Makoto Kubota and dan…
Nina Nastasia & Jim White
New York singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia might remind listeners of Cat Power, for both her breathy, girlish voice and piercingly intimate lyrics. Or perhaps Beth Orton, for her postmodern-folk arrangements and throat-twisting vocal gymnastics. Australian percussionist Jim White, whose day job is drumming for instrumental rockers Dirty Three, might know best,…